How P2P works and where the risk lives

A peer-to-peer trade looks simple: you sell crypto, a stranger sends you fiat, the crypto is released. Underneath, an escrow holds the crypto while the fiat leg happens off the platform. That gap between the on-chain event and the off-chain payment is where every P2P risk lives.

The escrow model

When you accept an order, the platform locks your crypto in escrow. The buyer marks the fiat as sent, you confirm it landed, and only then does escrow release. The platform never sees the money movement in your bank. It sees only your two clicks: paid and received. This is why a screenshot proves almost nothing and a bank record proves almost everything, a point we return to later in this track.

Where the money can be dirty

The crypto side of a P2P trade is public and traceable. The fiat side is not. A counterparty can pay you with funds that came from fraud, a hacked card, or a scam victim, and nothing on the trade screen will warn you. The bank that later reverses that payment does not care that you traded in good faith. It reverses first and asks questions after.

Triangulation

The most damaging P2P pattern is triangulation. A fraudster lists a fake sale somewhere, takes money from a victim, and directs that victim to pay you, the real seller, instead of themselves. You release crypto to the fraudster. The victim files a police report or a chargeback against the payment they made, which points at your account. You are now holding a reversed payment and a compliance flag for money you never knew was stolen.

You cannot fully prevent this, but you can make yourself a hard target and keep the evidence that shows you acted in good faith. That is what the rest of this track builds.

• Name mismatch is the loudest warning: the sender's name does not match the counterparty's verified name.
• Third-party payment from an account that is not the buyer's is a decline, not a maybe.
• Urgency and off-platform contact are how triangulation is steered. Stay inside the platform chat.

Before you ever accept an order, you can screen the counterparty's on-chain address. Check an address in the checker to see whether it is blacklisted, sanctioned, or already flagged.